Jack Danylchuk
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 04/06) - Warm weather isn't making campaigning any easier, according to the NDP's Dennis Bevington.

Freezing rain forced cancellation of a flying visit to Fort Smith by national leader Jack Layton, who was able to stop in Yellowknife just before the Christmas break.

Layton was rewarded with a photo-op with champion dog musher Grant Beck, who ferried Ed Broadbent on a campaign visit to Yellowknife 30 years earlier, when he was NDP leader.

Liberal campaigners could only watch as Layton and Bevington basked in the warmth of media coverage.

Ethel Blondin-Andrew wasn't impressed by the flying visit, and said "we're not targeting ridings, we're trying to win the country."

"The campaign is a long way from over," said MLA Sandy Lee, Liberal campaign manager for Yellowkknife, when asked if Prime Minister Paul Martin might throw his weight into the fight for the Western Arctic.

Freezing rain slowed Ethel Blondin-Andrew's tour through the Dehcho, forcing her to take the road instead of flying. "Freezing rain is making scheduling a little tricky," said Lana Roeland, a spokesperson for the Liberal incumbent's campaign team.

Blondin-Andrew started the New Year in Tulita and returned to Yellowknife to campaign in communities close to the capital this week.

After a slow start to the long campaign, candidates are picking up the pace for the final weeks, depositing their signs in snowbanks from Yellowknife to Inuvik.

Conservative Richard Edjericon spent part of the weekend in Rae and was back in Yellowknife, knocking on doors in Frame Lake, before taking his campaign to Fort Smith and Fort Resolution.

An independent candidate has joined the Liberals, NDP, Conservatives and Green Party in the race for the Western Arctic.

Jan H. van der Veen of Fort Simpson filed nomination papers with the returning officer before the Jan. 2 deadline.

Emergency workers weren't the only people who found themselves working through the holidays.

Elections Canada staff kept the Yellowknife office open Christmas and New Year's day for anyone who wanted to cast a special ballot in the Jan. 23 federal election.

"Some people did take advantage of the opportunity to vote," said Liz Wyman, returning officer .

The office on the second floor of Centre Square Mall, next to the Yellowknife Public Library, is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Advance polls will be open Jan. 13-16 in Yellowknife.

Wyman said polling hours for election day are 7.30 a.m to 7.30 p.m.

Media, schools and public interest groups have lined them up for five public forums, starting Jan. 11 with a CBC-sponsored debate at the Great Hall of the legislature.

The candidates have been invited to the Inuvik campus of Aurora College Jan. 16 and will be at Northern United Place Jan. 18 for a public forum sponsored by Alternatives North.

The Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce will host a forum at the Explorer Hotel Jan. 19 and the next day the candidates have been invited to Fort Providence.